The Judas Gospel and Other Gnostic Writings. From Greek gnosis, knowledge –Leaders Marcion and...

The Judas Gospel and Other Gnostic Writings

• From Greek gnosis, knowledge– Leaders Marcion and Valentinus, many different sects

• The Gnostic Writings– Nag Hammadi Codices:

• ~ 45 titles, 4 “Gospels”

Characteristics of Gnosticism


• The Gnostic Writings– Nag Hammadi Codices:

• ~ 45 titles, 4 “Gospels”:– The Gospel of Truth– The Gospel of Thomas– The Gospel of Philip– The Gospel of the Egyptians

– Other Gnostic Writings:• The Gospel of Mary (found in 1896)• The Gospel of Judas (found in 1970s)• The Secret Gospel of Mark (not found)• Marcion’s Gospel of the Lord (not found)• Infancy Gospels• Various Apocryphal “Acts” and Apocalyptic Texts



• The Gnostic Writings:– Dated 2nd to 4th Century

– Compared to the word:• Extremely difficult to understand. • Filled with nonsensical things. • Not an objective testimony of

historical events, but secretteachings with hidden meanings.

• No connection to apostolic authority


• Main Teachings1. Central Theme = Gnosis (Knowledge)

• A secret knowledge available only to an elite few. – Gospel of Thomas “These are the secret sayings that

the living Jesus spoke”



• A secret knowledge available only to an elite few. • A knowledge not derived from reason, study and intellectual

comprehension of objective truth, but mystical, direct, immediate.

• Contrast:


“Therefore do not fear them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered in your ear, proclaim upon the housetops.”

Mt 10:26-27




• Contrast:


“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.’”

Mt 11:25




• Contrast:


“And He was saying to them, ‘A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.’”

Mk 4:21-22




• Contrast:


“By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.”

Eph 3:4




• Contrast:


“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong

to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

Dt 29.29


• A secret knowledge available only to an elite few.

2. A knowledge found within one’s self and through experience:

• Gospel of Thomas 45:30-33: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you”



• A secret knowledge available only to an elite few.

2. A knowledge found within one’s self and through experience:

• Elaine Pagels, in Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas:

– “Now we can see how John’s message contrasts with that of Thomas. Thomas’ Jesus directs each disciple to discover the light within (‘within a person of light there is light’)”

• God is within you



2. A knowledge found within one’s self and through experience

3. Dualism• Dual nature of God and of the physical world

– Physical is evil; only spirit is good.– A good God can have no connection to a physical (evil) world.– Thus, physical world was created by the evil, creator god of the OT

» Demiurge or “maker” = lowest level of a series of beings (aeons or archons) descending down from the true God.

» Christ was an aeon who took possession of the body of the human Jesus.






» Contrast:


Gen 1:31“God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”





» Contrast:1 Tim 4:1-5



“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.”

1 Tim 4:1-5




– Dual sexual nature: God = divine father and mother (“divine feminine”)

» Bible: Jn 4.24: "God is spirit..."




3. Dualism• Dual nature of God and of the physical world• Dualism in Jesus Christ

– The true (spiritual) Jesus did not suffer on the cross, but only his physical substitute:

» Apocalypse of Peter 81.4-24: “The Savior said to me, ‘He whom you saw being glad and laughing above the cross is the Living Jesus. But he into whose hands and feet they are driving the nails is his fleshly part, which is the substitute. They put to shame that which remained in his likeness. And look at him, and [look at] me!’”






» The Second Treatise of the Great Seth 56.6-19: Jesus: “It was another…who drank the gall and the vinegar; it was not I. They struck me with the reed; it was another, Simon, who bore the cross on his shoulder. It was another upon whom they placed the crown of thorns. But I was rejoicing in the height…over their error…And I was laughing at their ignorance.”






» Acts of John 93 – “his substance was immaterial and incorporeal…as if it did not exist at all”





– Da Vinci Code: Jesus merely human– Gnostic gospels: Jesus too divine to be human





– Contrast: 1 Jn 1.1-3; 2.18,22; 4.2-3; 2 Jn 7


“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life --and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us -- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

1 John 1:1-3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

1 John 4:2-3

“For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

2 John 7



3. Dualism


• Discovered by a farmer in Egypt in 1978; part of leather bound, papyrus codex of four Gnostic works.

• Sold in antiquities market and held in a safe deposit box and deep freeze for past 30 years, deteriorating.

The Judas Gospel

The Judas Gospel

Found in caves such as these

• Dated to 3rd or 4th century A.D. (a copy).• Irenaeus (180 A.D.) mentions it as a Gnostic

writing of the Cainites sect:– "They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the

Gospel of Judas."

• Portrays a standard Gnosticism. Opening line:– "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in

conversation with Judas Iscariot."

• As a Cainite teaching, it styles Judas as the hero, the other eleven as imbeciles and villains.

The Judas Gospel

• Judas is given secret knowledge about Jesus:– “Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was

exalted, Jesus said to him, ‘Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal.”

• It makes Jesus’ execution good by allowing him to escape the evil of a material body:– “But you will exceed all of them (disciples). For you will sacrifice

the man that clothes me.”

The Judas Gospel

• Four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John– Muratorian Canon (~170 A.D.) -- Names only the four

Gospels, “Luke the 3rd; John the 4th”

– Irenaeus (ca. 180 A.D.): Four accepted, inspired Gospels• Against Heresies 3.11.8: “It is not possible that the Gospels can be either

more or fewer in number than they are. For since there are four zones of the world in which we live, and four principal winds, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the ‘pillar and ground’ of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting that she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side… the gospel is quadriform”

Which “Gospels” Came First?

• Four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John– Muratorian Canon (~170 A.D.) -- Names only the four

– Irenaeus (ca. 180 A.D.): Four accepted, inspired Gospels

– Justin Martyr (ca. 160 A.D.): Mentions the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke as “the memoirs of the apostles and those who followed them”

– Tatian (ca. 180 A.D.) -- Diatessaron (lit. “through the four”) – A harmony of the four gospels


• Four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John– Was the Gospel of Thomas a “Fifth Gospel”?

• Origin (185-254):– “I know a certain gospel which is called ‘The Gospel

according to Thomas’ and ‘Gospel according to Matthias’ and many others have we read….Nevertheless among all these we have approved solely what the church has recognized., which is that only the four gospels be accepted”


• Came too late:– Earliest is more than 100 years after Jesus’

death– No historical connection to the Jesus and

apostles• They were not “Apostolic”

– Forgeries (called “pseudepigrapha” = “false title”)

Why Reject the Gnostic Writings?

• Rejected by majority of early Christians:– Justin Martyr (110-164), Irenaeus (120-202),

Tertullian (145-220), etc.– Is this simply a case of the big guys win?

• Could it be that they were mainstream or orthodox because they were the true followers of the apostles?

– The apostles predicted a great falling away – 1 Tim 4.1f

• They themselves refuted “Gnosticism” – 1 Jn, etc.


• Never listed in any “canon” of scripture– Not even in canon of the Gnostic Marcion:

• Luke and Paul’s letters


• Inconsistent with the OT, the rest of the NT, and even themselves:– E.g. Saw the Creator God of the OT

(YHWH) as evil


• Inconsistent with the OT, the rest of the NT, and even themselves:– E.g. Saw God as feminine: e.g. Gospel

of Philip (highlighted in Da Vinci Code):• “Some said, ‘Mary conceived by the Holy Spirit.’ They

are in error. They do not know what they are saying. When did a woman ever conceive by a woman? Mary is the virgin whom no power defiled...”


• Inconsistent with the OT, the rest of the NT, and even themselves:– Gnostics speak of the divine feminine, but

do they uphold feminism, as Dan Brown claims?

• The Gospel of Thomas: “Simon Peter said to them, ‘Make Mary leave us, for females don’t deserve life.’ Jesus said, ‘Look, I will guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven.”


• Inconsistent with the OT, the rest of the NT, and even themselves:– Gnostics speak of the divine feminine,

but do they uphold feminism, as Dan Brown claims?

• Zostrianos 131:2-10: “Flee from the madness and the bondage of femaleness, and choose for yourselves the salvation of maleness...”


• Lack historical, ethical, believable quality of the NT Gospels:– Attempt to fill in the gaps:

• Infancy Gospel of Thomas (2nd c.): “The son of Annas the scribe was standing there with Jesus. Taking a branch from a willow tree, he dispersed the waters which Jesus had gathered. (2) When Jesus saw what had happened, he became angry and said to him, "You godless, brainless moron, what did the ponds and waters do to you? Watch this now: you are going to dry up like a tree and you will never produce leaves or roots or fruit. And immediately this child withered up completely”


• Lack historical, ethical, believable quality of the NT Gospels:– Attempt to fill in the gaps

• Infancy Gospel of Thomas (2nd c.): “Next, he was going through the village again and a running child bumped his shoulder. Becoming bitter, Jesus said to him, ‘You will not complete your journey.’ Immediately, he fell down and died”


• Lack historical, ethical, believable quality of the NT Gospels:– Nonsensical sayings:

• Gospel of Thomas: “They asked, ‘Shall we enter the kingdom of heaven? We are small.’ Jesus said to them, ‘When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter the kingdom.” (vs.22)


• Lack historical, ethical, believable quality of the NT Gospels:– Villainous acts made heroic:

• Judas Gospel:– The twelve see a vision of twelve men who “sacrifice their own

children, others their wives…some sleep with men…commit a multitude of sins and deeds of lawlessness” while invoking Christ’s name.

» Jesus: “That is who you are. That is the god you serve, and you are those twelve men you have seen. The cattle you have seen brought for sacrifice are the many people you lead astray”

» But Judas is not among them, as he is a “thirteenth”


• Lack historical, ethical, believable quality of the NT Gospels:– Villainous acts made heroic:

• Judas Gospel:– A betrayer is the hero while the rest are villains. Sound like a

superior religion or knowledge?– “What in virtually all human civilizations is viewed as morally

treacherous, Gnosticism, to be consistent with its overall worldview, presents as an ethically virtuous act….But what are we to say of a religion that casts betrayal as morally virtuous? The answer is obvious. Such a religion is hardly ethically superior to the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount or to the Ten Commandments in the Old Testament” (The Gospel of Judas: A Villain Rehabilitated? By Dr. Kostenberger; 04.10.06 Biblicalfoundations.org/blog/?p=34


http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/blog/?p=34

http://www.biblicalfoundations.org/blog/?m=20060410

• Came too late.• Rejected by majority of early Christians.• Never listed in any “canon” of scripture.• Inconsistent with the OT, the rest of the NT,

and even themselves.• Lack historical, ethical, believable quality of

the NT Gospels:– Attempt to fill in the gaps– Nonsensical sayings– Villainous acts made heroic


The Judas Gospel and Other Gnostic Writings. From Greek gnosis, knowledge –Leaders Marcion and...

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